The festival - which ran into controversy in recent years tied to content restrictions on state grants to arts institutions - is among 17 Washtenaw County arts groups to receive grants for fiscal 2009 from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.

The festival will receive $7,200 to fund a traveling tour of top short films from the 47th festival, which will screen in a dozen communities throughout the state next summer. Priority for these free screenings will focus on regions of Michigan that do not have regular access to high-caliber, artistically inspired cinema.

The festival is an annual event, held each March, that screens experimental and artistic movies from independent filmmakers.

"We find the MCACA's decision to support a Michigan tour of short films from our festival both poetic and encouraging," said Film Festival Executive Director Donald Harrison in a prepared statement.

This comes a few days after the festival received a locally administered "minigrant" of state money, $1,000 to fund art installations at next year's event.

The funds mark a return of state funding for the festival following a three-year hiatus, due to a 2006 censorship controversy and later lawsuit. Public questions arose over whether the festival had violated state grant rules over potentially offensive content; the festival said no, but it stopped seeking state money and used the controversy as a successful lever for private fund-raising. Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the state over the content rules on behalf of the festival. Late last year, the state replaced the disputed rules with a much looser statement that parallels one used by the National Endowment for the Arts. That cleared the way for the festival's return to the grant program.

The total amount of MCACA funding awarded for 2009 is $7,906,655, to 290 arts and cultural projects around the state.
MCACA Executive Director John Bracey said that many of the organizations receiving grants use MCACA dollars to supplement art, music, theater and dance education offerings in areas where school programs have been greatly reduced or cut entirely.